Good morning Vietnam...

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28 Feb - after 4 weeks at the zoo I sadly have to say goodbye. I enjoy my final breakfast on the balcony of the volunteer house watching the world go by on the road outside, the cows in the fields, the ornate Buddhist temple and savouring the blaring music for the last time coming from the worship place / community centre beside the house (funerals, weddings, Sunday worship - music at ALL hours of the day and night). Sad farewells to Pete, Jodie and the volunteers but esp to Jones the dog and wee Jock, his friend from next door. Jen is joining me on part of my trip to Vietnam as we intend to visit a bear sanctuary at Cat Tien NP, also funded by FTB, so it's great to have a travelling buddy.

Mr Onh tuktuk's us into PP and we catch the bus to HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) which is expected to take 6 hours. It's a comfy bus ride, including a 5 minute ferry crossing over the Mekong and for $12, great value. We reach the border and take an hour or so to get through but it's relatively smooth. Heavy rain slows us down for the next part of the journey so it's about 8pm by the time we arrive in Saigon (sounds more exotic than HCMC don't ya think!).

Saigon - what a place!!!It seems like the first time in months that I've seen dual carriageways and so many neon lights and big shops. There are hundreds and thousands of motos here with specific moto lanes chockful in some parts of the city. Jen and I had identified the backpacker area of the city in advance -Pham Ngoc Lao and some possible hotels. Get checked in and dump our stuff then head out to use the internet and have a quiet drink with the intention of being back by midnight at the latest as we've managed to arrange a bus journey to Cat Tien National Park for early the next morning. However...we start talking to a stag party of English, who are currently based in Hong Kong, at the Allez Boo pub. We end up having considerably more than 'just the one' then head to a sports pub to watch the Ireland v England rugby match...en route we take an expensive cyclo ride which doesn't take us anywhere near the pub we're heading to which in fact turns out to be 1 min walk from the previous pub - argh!). Jen then leaves with the stag party to yet another pub but by this time I'm talking to a blond guy from Switzerland and some Irish guys. We somehow manage to both arrive back at our hotel...at the same time...about 3am, rather merry!!!

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